[PharaohsPaw]

Hello,

This is the Changelog post for the AdsQL Advertisements System plugin/web interface.

Since I have always hated Changelog files that don't really go into any detail about what was actually changed between versions, and since the first post is basically "long enough" already, I've decided to move the changelog to this post instead. We don't really need screenshots of the web interface since I have a demo site up that people can get a better look at everything with anyway.

As updates are made to the plugin or web interface, I will update the changelog here (and also in the .zip file on the first post).

WARNING: Existing AdsQL users need to pay careful attention to this post when upgrading from previous versions. Some releases, most notably 1.7.5 and 1.7.7, make substantial changes and there are USER TO-DO items that will be necessary for upgraders to perform as part of the upgrade process. If you upgrade without performing these USER TO-DO items, well, you're probably going to still see the problems.


AdsQL Changelog

v1.7.8 - 02 Apr 2011
- Updated plugin - BUG FIX - move the SET NAMES 'utf8' query into SetupAds so that UTF8 DB session parameters are set before *EVERY* ads load/reload. Fixes issue discovered by Payalnick where ads requiring proper UTF8 charset support do not display properly after ad reload or map change. Thanks to Payalnick for finding and reporting the issue in enough detail to fix it.
- No changes to Web UI in 1.7.8

v1.7.7 - 31 Mar 2011
Release of 1.7.7. All existing users need to carefully read the changelog since version 1.7.6. A lot has changed and there are some things you are going to need to do.

v1.7.7b4 - 29 Mar 2011
Plugin:
- Added {OLIVE} color tag support for "Say"/chat-area type messages. Tested/working on CS:S, TF2, and L4D 1/2. If it doesn't work on the (other) game you are trying to use it on, then the engine that game runs on doesn't support it and there is NOTHING I can do (so don't ask!)

- Added AutoExecConfig support. On plugin *start*, the plugin will look for (game dir)/cfg/sourcemod/adsql.cfg and execute it if it is found.

The plugin will *NOT* automatically create an adsql.cfg if it is missing, and will *NOT* auto-execute adsql.cfg on map changes at this time.

USER TO-DO:
Users *MUST* put an adsql.cfg file in cfg/sourcemod/ themselves if they are going to use this feature. A sample adsql.cfg with default values for the CVAR's I will support being defined in this file is included in the .zip file under cfg/sourcemod/. I will *NOT* support defining adsql_serverid in adsql.cfg. See The FAQ Post for details about defining server ID's in a .cfg file.

WebUI:
UPDATES: Extensive - Replace entire web interface. See the "How To Upgrade My Web Interface" section of The FAQ Post for instructions.

- (IMPORTANT) Added conditional wrapper at top and bottom of include/config.php, to prevent all the various .php files comprising the webui from trying to "redefine" any of the constant values set in config.php if it was already read previously.

USER TO-DO:
Existing users of AdsQL need to add a few new lines to their existing config.php because 1) it will make the webserver stop spewing errors about the various constants already being defined and 2) because it seems to speed up the web interface CONSIDERABLY, at least for me. "How to upgrade web interface" docs in FAQ post has been updated with details.

- All database connections used by the web interface will now set UTF8 session parameters before reading/writing any data. Depending on whether the PHP version and MySQL server version are new enough, the web interface will either use mysql_set_charset (if it can) or use a SET NAMES 'utf8' query if either version is too old to support mysql_set_charset. This has been tested fairly hard and I can't see it having any effect at all on new or existing ads in the database (or their proper display in any of the games we have servers for).

- Renamed the web/adsql/style.css file to web/adsql/style.css.default in the distribution .zip file, to protect the style.css already present on the web host for existing users who are upgrading their web interface. New users of AdsQL WebUI will need to copy web/adsql/style.css.default to web/adsql/style.css before uploading to their web host, install docs updated to that effect, as well as the "how to upgrade my web interface" section in the FAQ post.

- Add PHP trim() function to remove any leading and trailing whitespace and other "noise" characters from the server ID input field and the game type listbox when adding or editing ads. Without doing this there will be a LOT of spaces at the end of the field when the gamesrvid input text is written to the database. Not sure this would cause any actual problems, but it does make things look a little weird when the plugin lists the ads it found. Decided to do the same thing with the game type field as well, in case it matters (I have never seen the first problem with it... *shrug*). Both have been pretty well tested with editing existing ads and creating new ones (and then editing those too).

USER TO-DO:
Due to the possibility that extra whitespace at the end of the Server ID field (and maybe even the Game Types field) in ad database records could cause problems selecting ads based on the server ID values (and possibly even game types), it is strongly recommended that *ALL* existing users of AdsQL use the updated (1.7.7) web interface to edit EACH EXISTING AD. You do not have to actually change anything in the ads -- simply click the Edit (pencil) icon for the ad, then click the Change Advertisement submit button in the bottom right of the ad editor page. This will cause the PHP trim() function fixes in the 1.7.7 WebUI to strip off the extra whitespace from the game types and server ID fields, thus "fixing" these fields to only contain needed data without whitespace, etc. that could affect plugin SELECT's finding the desired ads.

- Changed display order of ads in ads.php to ascending - this matches the order they are selected and displayed by the plugin. Updated ads_process_data code that is used to swap the SQL record ID to go along with this as well.

- Delete/Move Up/Move Down existing ads:
Optimized loop iterations when searching for which ad the user clicked a delete or up/down button for by keeping track of the "low" and "high" SQL record ID numbers per page of ads displayed. This speeds up form submit processing but also ensures we don't miss the ad's SQL ID# in case it happens to be lower/higher than the "count" of ads on the page. So it should also fix any chance there was in previous versions of "missing" an ad a user clicked a delete/move up/move down button for. Everybody be sure to send Gates and Ballmer another bag of Gummi Lighthouses, if IE didn't suck none of this would have been necessary to code around.

v1.7.7b3 - 16 Mar 2011
- Changed method of sending "SET NAMES 'utf8';" query to database server to method recommended by Psychonic. It is now performed with an SQL_FastQuery() in the database connector call at plugin startup. Seems to work for me.

v1.7.7b2 - 16 Mar 2011
- Added SET NAMES 'utf8' SQL query to plugin code before doing any ads search queries, this sets 3 session parameters with the SQL server that help ensure it uses utf8 when we retrieve ads. Thanks to Psychonic for the help!

v1.7.7b - 06 Mar 2011
- Removed timestamp output from "Firing Ad" debug log message - since it is a log message now there will already be a timestamp!

- Updated plugin source to meet #pragma semicolon 1 code formatting

v1.7.6
16 Mar 2011
- Replaced adsmysql.sql SQL script (used to set up database tables) with updated script adsql.sql. Necessary for good UTF8 charset support.
- adsql.sql will alter the database being "set up" to set default charset to UTF8 and charset collation type to utf8_general_ci, as well as set these for other important tables and columns. Since this .sql script is only likely to be used by first-time installers or others starting from scratch it will not affect existing users.

06 Mar 2011
- PLUGIN UPDATES! No changes to web interface since 1.7.5
- Ensure AdsQL logs all messages, not just print to console
- Added additional debug-mode logging to monitor changes to adsql_interval cvar
- Added code to ensure ad display timer is correctly replaced (and that only one is set up) when adsql_interval is set to non-default value in a .cfg file
- Reset "current ad being displayed" counter to 0 anytime ads are set up or reloaded!
- Added timestamp output to debug mode to show when each ad fires, useful if there are still any timer problems.

v1.7.5 - 04 Mar 2011
- Corrected *ALL* HTML (4.01 Transitional) standards compliance problems with the ENTIRE web interface, except one non-standard item which we NEED in order to pre-fill a default value for the Server ID's text input field, or in the case of editing ads, to pre-fill the Server ID's text input field with the current value from the database.
- The web interface is now compatible with Internet Explorer (from 1.7.3 fixes).
- THE ENTIRE WEB INTERFACE NEEDS TO BE REPLACED. Refer to installation instructions for the web interface on Page 1 (original post) - but note that you will need to replace *ALL* existing files and sub-folders in the adsql/ directory on your web host from the web/adsql folder in the unpacked adsql-v1.7.5.zip file. The existing include/config.php file on your web host will be preserved -- the sample config file in the .zip file has a different filename (and will from now on to protect upgraders).
- Corrected bug in 1.7.3 web interface that would prevent users with more than 25 ads in the database from deleting or changing the order of ads.
- Added "Easiest way to upgrade my web interface" section to Troubleshooting/FAQ post
- No changes to the plugin since 1.7.2

v1.7.3 - 03 Mar 2011
- Fixed IE problems with deleting ads and moving them up/down on the main ads page (ads.php). Microsoft needs to get with the program and fix their HTML standards compliance issues regarding image type form submission values. Or just admit to the world that they would rather suck on Gummi Lighthouses than follow standards they didn't dream up.
- Updated files in web interface (these files need to be replaced):
about.php
ads.php
ads_process_data.php
index.php
include/header.php
- Plugin is unchanged from 1.7.2.

v1.7.2 - 02 Mar 2011
- Move the SQL_TConnect call to open database connection back to OnPluginStart. With it in OnMapStart multiple DB connections per plugin instance occurred.
- Bumped version of web interface about.php to 1.6.1a, the version of last actual changes made.
- Users of versions 1.7.0 and 1.7.1 need to update their plugin to 1.7.2 to avoid leaving lots of idle/sleeping db connections
- No changes (except 1.6.1a version bump noted above) in web interface

v1.7.1 - 28 Feb 2011
- Make plugin check (by newer last modified timestamp) at each map start for an updated serverid.txt and read the new server ID if file has changed.
- No changes to web interface since 1.6.1a, only the plugin is updated in 1.7.1.

v1.7.0 - 26 Feb 2011
- Fixed the "more than one ad displays at a time" / multiple ad display timers running problem. Tested for correct behavior in L4D2 including first map after a server boot, reloading ads, changing maps, and leaving the server (leaving no players) and then coming back. Also tested all of the above with CS:S as a "control" (where I have not seen the problem).
- Cleaned up/reworked plugin code to run *ALL* ads searches and reloads through one function.
- Added adsql_debug cvar. Defaults to 0 (no debug logging). Set to 1 if you want lots of debug logging to help trace code flow.
- Moved the SQL_TConnect() call that opens the database connection from OnPluginStart to OnMapStart. L4D games hibernate after starting up and will call OnMapStart when they wake up. Other games like CS:S, TF2, etc. will call OnMapStart before we need the database to do anything anyway. No need to open a DB connection until we need it.
- Added (non-debug) log message to show the server ID being used to search for ads when a server ID is defined.
- No changes to web interface since 1.6.1a, only the plugin is updated in 1.7.0.

v1.6.2 - 22 Feb 2011
- Fixed public cvar adsql_version so it actually shows up in utils such as HLSW. Credit goes to the hlstatsx.sp coders for a code example of how to deal with a2s_rules apparently being broken on Linux. This change seemed to help the adsql_version cvar show up on our (Linux) TF2 and CS:S servers when I couldn't get it to show it before.
- Made adsql_serverid a public cvar so it can be seen in utils like HLSW. This should be useful for server operators with lots of servers to configure ads for. It *MIGHT* take a map change before the public cvars show up in HLSW, not sure why and I'm not sure HLSW is a good proving ground either.
- No changes to the web interface in this version from 1.6.1a, only the plugin.
- Interesting discovery -- On a map change, the plugin apparently DOES NOT reset the server ID! The server ID after the map change was still what I had set it to via rcon in the previous map. This could mean that we don't have to define the server ID in a serverid.txt file, but more testing is needed.

v1.6.1a - 22 Feb 2011
- Fixed the Server ID text field being zero'd out on every add or edit. The Server ID text field will be left alone now even if it does get ignored because the Game Type is set to All Games. A side benefit of this is if you choose to edit the ad later to only apply to some game types, you still have the contents of the Server ID's field in case you want them.
- Users of 1.6.1 and prior only need the fixed ads_process_data.php from the adsql-v1.6.1a.zip file -- replace this file in the adsql/ folder on your web host
- No changes to plugin in 1.6.1a
- Users of 1.6.1 and prior will need to edit their ads to ensure the desired Server ID's are set for those ads (either 'All' or specific server ID's)

v1.6.1
22 Feb 2011
- Changed web compiler setting to build for 1.1 sourcemod series (the compiled .smx works fine on my servers running 1.3.6) - this is another way to help make it easier for folks to try/use this plugin
21 Feb 2011
- Changed plugin name from sm_adsql to just adsql
- Changed sm_adsql_interval CVAR to adsql_interval
- Changed sm_adsql_serverid CVAR to adsql_serverid
- Changed sm_adsql_version public CVAR to adsql_version
- Verified that the Advertisements Manager web interface does not support setting server ID strings containing spaces. This could be a lot of work to try to code support for and I'm not sure it is a good use of my time. Keep the server ID definitions simple -- alphanumeric characters with no spaces and definitely no commas -- and everything will work fine.

v1.6.0 - 20 Feb 2011
- Original release on Sourcemod forums as a fork from <eVa>Dog/Strontium Dog's original MySQL Advertisements plugin and web interface, which are no longer being maintained/updated.